Wilderness
WILDERNESS
See DESERT.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Wilderness
See Desert.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Wilderness
is in the A.V. the most frequent rendering of (midbar, ), which primarily denotes a region not regularly tilled or inhabited (Job 38:26; Isa 32:15; Jer 2:2), but used for pasturage (from
, to track, referring to the cattle-paths) (Jer 9:9; Psa 65:13; Joe 2:22; Luk 15:4); mostly treeless and dry, but not entirely destitute of vegetation or fertility, such as are of frequent occurrence in the East (Robinson 2:656; occasionally cultivated in spots, Josephus, Ant. 12:4, 6). Towers were sometimes erected in them for the protection of flocks (2Ch 26:10; 2Ki 17:9; comp. Isa 1:8). The term is likewise in some instances applied to particular barren tracts of hard arid steppes (Isa 35:6; Isa 41:18; Isa 43:20; Lam 4:3; Mal 1:3) overrun with wild animals (see Rosenmiller, Morgenl. 1:88 sq.); although for such spots the words (Joe 2:3; Joel 4:19), , (see Credner, in the Stud. u. Krit. 1833, 3:788 sq.), etc., are usually employed. For a remarkable phenomenon of these dry wastes, SEE MIRAGE. Although this kind of region is not particularly characteristic of Palestine, yet the term midbar is applied to the following localities in it or its immediate vicinity SEE DESERT.
1. The Wilderness of Judah also called Jeshimon (1Sa 23:19; 1Sa 26:1; 1Sa 26:3), is a rocky district in the eastern part of that tribe adjoining the Dead Sea and including the town of Engedi (Jos 15:61; Jdg 1:16). It appears to have extended from the vicinity of the Kedron, a few miles east of Jerusalem, to the S.W. shore of the Dead Sea and to the hills of Judah. The convent of Mar Saba (q.v.) is a marked feature of one of its wild and barren dells. SEE JUDAH, WILDERNESS OF. On the N.W. border of the wilderness of Judah lay the Wilderness of Tekoa (2Ch 20:20; 1Ma 9:33); as in its E. part appears to have lain the Wilderness of Engedi (1Sa 24:2), and in its S. part the Wilderness of Ziph (23:14 sq.) or Maon (q.v.), otherwise called Jeruel (2 Chronicles 20:46). The Wilderness of St. John (Mat 3:1; Mat 3:3; comp. 11:7; Luk 1:80) is a part of the desert of Judah; although modern tradition gives that name to the neighborhood of Ain Karim west of Jerusalem. SEE JOHN THE BAPTIST.
2. The Wilderness of Beersheba (Gen 21:14) lay south of that town on the borders of the desert Et-Tih. SEE BEERSHEBA.
3. The Wilderness of Jericho (Jos 16:1), between that city and the Mount of Olives, or rather Bethany, was an extension of the desert of Judah, a rough and stony tract full of precipices (see Josephus, Ant. 10:8, 2), which contains the so-called khan of the Samaritans (Luk 10:30). Its N, E. extremity is the wilderness of Quarantana (q.v.), and its N.W. extremity the wilderness of Beth-aven (Jos 18:12).
4. The Wilderness of Gibeon, in the vicinity of that city, north of Jerusalem (2Sa 2:24).
5. The Wilderness of Reuben (Deu 4:43), denotes the barren tract in the neighborhood of Bezer, on the border of the tribe towards the Arabian desert. SEE REUBEN.
6. The Wilderness of Bethsaida (Luk 9:10), a pasture-ground adjoining that town, apparently extending on both sides of the mouth of the Upper Jordan. SEE BETHSAIDA. For the Wilderness of Arabia Petraea or of Mt. Sinai, including those of Etham, Paran, Shur, and the Arabah, SEE WILDERNESS OF THE WANDERINGS.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Wilderness
(1.) Heb. midhbar, denoting not a barren desert but a district or region suitable for pasturing sheep and cattle (Ps. 65:12; Isa. 42:11; Jer. 23:10; Joel 1:19; 2:22); an uncultivated place. This word is used of the wilderness of Beersheba (Gen. 21:14), on the southern border of Palestine; the wilderness of the Red Sea (Ex. 13:18); of Shur (15:22), a portion of the Sinaitic peninsula; of Sin (17:1), Sinai (Lev. 7:38), Moab (Deut. 2:8), Judah (Judg. 1:16), Ziph, Maon, En-gedi (1 Sam. 23:14, 24; 24:1), Jeruel and Tekoa (2 Chr. 20:16, 20), Kadesh (Ps. 29:8).
“The wilderness of the sea” (Isa. 21:1). Principal Douglas, referring to this expression, says: “A mysterious name, which must be meant to describe Babylon (See especially ver. 9), perhaps because it became the place of discipline to God’s people, as the wilderness of the Red Sea had been (comp. Ezek. 20:35). Otherwise it is in contrast with the symbolic title in Isa. 22:1. Jerusalem is the “valley of vision,” rich in spiritual husbandry; whereas Babylon, the rival centre of influence, is spiritually barren and as restless as the sea (comp. 57:20).” A Short Analysis of the O.T.
(2.) Jeshimon, a desert waste (Deut. 32:10; Ps. 68:7).
(3.) ‘Arabah, the name given to the valley from the Dead Sea to the eastern branch of the Red Sea. In Deut. 1:1; 2:8, it is rendered “plain” (R.V., “Arabah”).
(4.) Tziyyah, a “dry place” (Ps. 78:17; 105:41).
(5.) Tohu, a “desolate” place, a place “waste” or “unoccupied” (Deut. 32:10; Job 12:24; comp. Gen. 1:2, “without form”). The wilderness region in the Sinaitic peninsula through which for forty years the Hebrews wandered is generally styled “the wilderness of the wanderings.” This entire region is in the form of a triangle, having its base toward the north and its apex toward the south. Its extent from north to south is about 250 miles, and at its widest point it is about 150 miles broad. Throughout this vast region of some 1,500 square miles there is not a single river. The northern part of this triangular peninsula is properly the “wilderness of the wanderings” (et-Tih). The western portion of it is called the “wilderness of Shur” (Ex. 15:22), and the eastern the “wilderness of Paran.”
The “wilderness of Judea” (Matt. 3:1) is a wild, barren region, lying between the Dead Sea and the Hebron Mountains. It is the “Jeshimon” mentioned in 1 Sam. 23:19.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Wilderness
WILDERNESS.The word or words (more or less synonymous) which the Authorized and Revised Versions translation by wilderness or desert afford a striking example of the difficulties which translators, and after them the ordinary readers of Holy Scripture, have to contend with, because that word does not convey to our mind the idea of something we know: in our western European countries there is not, properly speaking, any desert or wilderness, in the Biblical sense of the word. Thus, unable to consult our own experience, we have to fall back upon books we have read, and upon notions obtained in that way. Immediately there rises in our memory the view of a desert of sand, stretching itself out of sight in a complete solitude, and giving to the caravans of travellers scarcely any other choice but death from thirst, or burial under the moving soil blown up by some terrible windstorm. Such is the classical representation of a desert or wilderness, and it is a constant source of errors for the understanding of numerous passages of the Bible where that word occurs. There is no desert of sand either in Palestine or in the neighbouring countries. In fact, the Hebrew word which is usually translation desert or wilderness (midbr) does not in the least convey the idea of solitude or desolation; on the contrary, it belongs to a root which means to pasture, and therefore, etymologically, feeding-ground or pasture-land would seem to be the most exact translation. But if we should adopt it, another ambiguity would be created, and a false notion suggested. Indeed, for a European reader, a pasture is a meadow with abundant grass, which is not at all true of the-Palestinian midbr.
For a correct understanding of the meaning of the word wilderness in the Bible, one has to remember that there wereand are stillnomads in Bible lands. Those people are not addicted to agricultural life, but to the breeding of cattle; they live on the borders of cultivated lands, between these and other regions which are either uninhabitable or practically uninhabited. The territories held by those nomadscalled Bedawn in modern timesare not without water and grass; but these indispensable resources, required for the herds, are both scarce, and the tribes of shepherds, are compelled to remove their camps from one place to another for feeding and watering their cattle. The midbr is therefore essentially the ground occupied by nomad tribes; it forms around agricultural districts a zone variable in extension or breadth; sometimes culture wins over uncultivated lands, sometimes these regain spaces formerly tilled and sown. At the boundary itself of those two tracts of land live some populations which hold a sort of intermediate position in the progress of civilization: they are half-sedentary, half-shepherds (half-Fellahn, half-Bedawn), and, dwelling still under tents, they cultivate the ground, plough, sow, and reap (cf. Max von Oppenheim, Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf, 1900, ii. pp. 7884). Even in the interior of cultivated districts, where villages and towns exist, there are frequently patches of land where the soil remains abandoned to itself, without culture, and they offer, therefore, the same character as the exterior zone inhabited by nomads. Those spaces are generally used as pasture-grounds for the cattle, and have also been called midbr. They are found even near towns; thus the OT mentions the wildernesses of Gibeon, of Tekoa, of Damascus, of Riblah (Massoretic Text Diblah, Eze 6:14). Besides those local denominations, others occur which apply to peripheric regions: wildernesses of Shur, of Sin, of Sinai, of Paran, of in, of Kadesh, of Ethan (or Yam-Suph), of Maon, of Ziph, of Beersheba, of Engedi, of Jeruel, of Beth-aven, of Edom, of Moab, of Kedemoth. Several of these wildernesses, as their names show, cover vast spaces; others, on the contrary, represent quite limited places.
One of the most important deserts is the Wilderness of Judah, twenty hours in length and five in breadth, which constitutes, with the Mountain (Har), the South (Negeb), and the Low-Country (Shephelah), the four parts of the territory of that tribe. The Wilderness of Judah is the region situated east of the watershed, between this high line and the western shore of the Dead Sea. The wildernesses of Ziph and of Maon are portions of it in the south, as well as those of Engedi and Tekoa in the middle; and finally also, in the north, the rough, barren, and uninhabited district where the road runs from Jerusalem to Jericho (cf. Luk 10:30 ff.) That wilderness is an uneven, undulating table-land, where conical hills and rocky hillocks arise, where deep ravines are cut between steep walls of rocks; it falls down towards the easthere in gradual declivities, there in sudden and abrupt slopesin the direction of the Dead Sea, situated 1500 or 2000 feet below. No river or rivulet, no trees, no villages; a soil without vegetation, either sandy or stony, here and there with scarce and meagre grass, which is avidly sought for by small flocks of sheep and goats, belonging to a few miserable camps of black or brown tents. That wilderness was the refuge of David when persecuted by Saul (1 Samuel 22-26); he knew it from the time of his youth, having, when a boy, followed there the herds of his father (1Sa 16:11; 1Sa 17:15; 1Sa 17:34). Later on the same region sheltered Judas Maccabaeus and his companions (1Ma 9:33).
The wildernesses mentioned in the Bible are not all as inclement and inhospitable as the Wilderness of Judah. They are sometimes inhabited; they contain wells and cisterns, towns (Jos 15:61 f., 1Ki 9:18, 2Ch 8:4) and houses (1Ki 2:34), herds of sheep (1Sa 17:28), and pastures (Psa 65:13 f).
The Gospel of John alludes twice to the sojourn of Israel in the wilderness (Joh 3:14 Moses lifting the serpent, and Joh 6:31; Joh 6:40 the manna). The Synoptics do not mention it; but it is spoken of in the Book of Acts, specially in Stephens discourse (Joh 7:36-44) and in Joh 13:18, and in 1Co 10:5 and Heb 3:8 (quoting Psa 95:8) and Joh 3:17.
The Wilderness of Judah is named several times in connexion with John the Baptist. His youth, according to Luk 1:80, was spent in the deserts; that is, certainly, with the keepers of herds, away from towns or villages, in solitude and contemplation. In that respect, as well as in others, John is like Amos, the shepherd of Tekoa. According to the Gospels, the deserts included also the country near Jordanbeyond, that is, east of, the riverwhere John began his ministry, preaching and baptizing (Mat 3:1, Mar 1:4, Luk 3:2; cf. Mat 11:7, Luk 7:24; see artt. Bethabara, John the Baptist, Jordan), and the four Gospels apply to that event the prophecy of Isa 40:3 (Mat 3:3, Mar 1:3, Luk 3:4, Joh 1:23).
Ecclesiastical tradition has not been content with the indications given in the Gospels which connect John the Baptists life and work with the wilderness: it has connected also his birth with it. The place where Zacharias and Elisabeth dwelt being only vaguely named in Luk 1:39, it has been identified by the Christians of the Holy Land and the pilgrims, since the time of the Crusades, with a village situated about 4 miles west from Jerusalem; the Arabs call it Ain-Karim, hut it is known in the language of the Churches as St. John in the Desert or St. John in the Mountain. That place is not in the Wilderness of Judah; its neighbourhood is cultivated and fertile, at least in the sense in which one can use that word when speaking of Judaea. Even if we should suppose that such was the birthplace of John, it would be unjustified to consider it as being in the wilderness (cf. ZDPV [Note: DPV Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palstina-Vereins.] xxii. pp. 8193).
It is also in the wilderness that the Gospel narratives place the scene of the Temptation of our Lord (Mat 4:1, Mar 1:12, Luk 4:1). Since the time of the Crusades, ecclesiastical tradition has contrived to localize that event in a particular, well-defined spot, and has chosen for it the wild and desolate mountain which arises almost vertically above the Fountain of Elisha, west from the oasis of Jericho. A Greek convent, continuation of a very old laura, which was, if not founded, at least developed by Elpidins (ZDPV [Note: DPV Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palstina-Vereins.] iii. p. 13), is suspended on the side of that mountain, which has received the name of Mount of the Quarantania (Jebel Karantul), on account of Jesus fasting 40 days. It is, of course, equally impossible to prove or to disprove that this, place is the one mentioned in the narratives of the Temptation.
Galilee, and particularly the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret, was at the time of our Lord relatively well peopled: this is proved by the Gospels, and still more explicitly by the testimony of Josephus. There were, however, spaces of land without human habitations, and probably left to the shepherds and their cattle. According to the narratives of the Gospels, several scenes of the Galilaean ministry of Jesus, and some of His teachings, were connected with places of that sort, designated now as a desert or a wilderness ( or ), now as a desert place ( ). We have to mention here (a) the multiplication of loaves (Mat 14:13-21, Mar 6:30-44, Luk 9:10-17, Mat 15:32-38, Mar 8:1-10); (b) Jesus withdrawing for prayer (Mar 1:35, Luk 5:16), or to avoid the crowd (Mar 1:45, Luk 4:42, Joh 11:54); (c) the demoniac of Gadara (Luk 8:29); (d) the parable of the Lost Sheep (Luk 15:3-7), where the 99 sheep remain in the wilderness, whereas the shepherd goes after that which is lost until he finds it.
Literature.PEFSt [Note: EFSt Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1871, pp. 380; E. H. Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus , 2 vols., 1871; Furrer, art. Wste in Schenkel, Bib. Lex. v. pp. 680685; G. A. Smith, HGHL [Note: GHL Historical Geog. of Holy Land.] , pp. 312317; Buhl, GAP [Note: AP Geographic des alten Palstina.] , pp. 9699; Lagrange in RB [Note: Revue Biblique.] , 1896, pp. 618643, 1897, pp. 107130, 605625, 1900, pp. 6386; B. Baentsch, Die Wste, ihre Namen und ihre bildliche Anwendung in den Alttest. Schriften, 1883; Pierre Loti, Le Dsert 6, 1895 [descriptive], and other [more scientific] books of travels in the Sinai-Peninsula; Bnhoff, Die Wanderung Israels in der Wste in SK [Note: K Studien und Kritiken.] , 1907, pp. 159217.
Lucien Gautier.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Wilderness
wilder-nes. See DESERT; JUDAEA, WILDERNESS OF; WANDERINGS OF ISRAEL.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Wilderness
[DESERTS]
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Wilderness
This term and that of DESERT do not usually refer in scripture to such places as the vast sand-plains of Africa, though there are some such in Palestine, but the words mostly refer to non-arable plains where the vegetation but thinly covers the limestone with patches of verdure. In places where the ground is not worth cultivating it can be used for pasture. Some of such deserts are comparatively small, but others are extensive. The wilderness of JUDAH is a plain extending the whole length of the Dead Sea; but some of it can be used for pasture land. It may be said to include the wilderness of EN-GEDI, that of MAON, and probably that of ZIPH and of JERUEL.
The wilderness of BETH-AVEN and of GIBEON were in the allotment of Benjamin.
The wilderness of DAMASCUS was far north, and that of BEER-SHEBA far south; and that of SHUR, still farther south-west.
Those of KEDEMOTH, of EDOM, and of MOAB were east of the Dead Sea.
The rest were not in Palestine proper, but were the deserts through which the Israelites passed or were located in their wanderings: namely, ETHAM, KADESH, PARAN, SIN, SINAI, and ZIN. See WANDERINGS OF THE ISRAELITES.
Typically the wilderness was outside Canaan, and stands in contrast to it. The wilderness was the place of testing to the Israelites, and it is the same to the Christian, to humble him, and to prove what is in his heart. Deu 8:2. He has to learn what he is in himself, and the God of all grace he has to do with. There is need of constant dependence or there is failure, while the experience is gained of knowing One who never fails to succour. Canaan is figuratively a heavenly position and conflict, corresponding with the need of the armour of Eph 6:11, to stand against the wiles of the devil. For this one needs to realise what it is to be dead and risen with Christ. It is association in spirit with Christ in heaven.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Wilderness
Wandering of the Israelites in
Israel
Typical of the sinner’s state
Deu 32:10
Jesus’ temptation in
Mat 4:1; Mar 1:12-13; Luk 4:1 Desert
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Wilderness
Wilderness, The, in which the Israelites spent 40 years, between Egypt and Canaan, is called sometimes the “great and terrible wilderness” by way of eminence. Deu 1:1; Deu 8:2; Jos 5:6; Neh 9:19; Neh 9:21; Psa 78:40; Psa 78:52; Psa 107:4; Jer 2:2. In general it may be identified with the peninsula of Sinai, the triangular region between the Gulf of Akabah, on the east, and the Gulf of Suez and Egypt on the west. See Sinai. In this region there are several smaller wildernesses, as Etham, Paran, Shur, Zin. What is known distinctively as the “wilderness of the Wandering” is the great central limestone plateau between the granite region of Sinai on the south, the sandy desert on the north, and the valley of the Arabah on the east. The explorations of travellers and the British Ordnance Survey have made this region quite well known. The route of the Israelites from Egypt to Kadesh can be traced with reasonable accuracy. Instead of entering the Promised Land immediately from Kadesh, they were driven back into the wilderness for their disobedience, and there wandered for 40 years. They probably lived a nomad life as do the Bedouin Arabs of the present day.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
WILDERNESS
Wilderness is a place of temptations, misery, persecution, and all that is opposed to settlement, and worldly peace.f1 The prophets frequently use the symbol to signify all manner of desolation. Thus in Isa 27:10, “Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness.” The like is found in Isa 14:17; Isa 33:9; Jer 22:6; Hos 2:3. And thus in Virgil, neas, to shew the misery of his condition, mentions his wandering unknown and needy in a wilderness,-
Ipse ignotus, egens, Libym deserta peragro. F2
But yet this symbol, however bad, may sometimes have a mixture of good; as when persons threatened and pursued by enemies fly to a wilderness, as to a hiding place. As the Israelites, in the persecution of Antiochus, when the Gentiles had profaned the sanctuary, did; flying unto the mountains, and into the secret places of the wilderness.f3 And as when the prophets, during the persecution of Jezebel, hid themselves in the wilderness, and were nourished by miraculous means, as Elijah, at the brook Cherith, (1Ki 17:3-4) was fed by ravens; and when supplied with bread and water by an angel, (1Ki 19:4-6;) in the case also of the prophets, whom Obadiah hid in a cave, and fed with bread and water, 1Ki 18:13. And in Eze 20:34-38, where God declares that he will gather Israel out of the countries wherein they are scattered; and bring them into the wilderness of the people, and plead with them. See also Hos. ii. 14 Jer. xxxi. 2; and Rev 12:6. And in this sense a wilderness is the symbol of an obscure and retired though safe state and condition.
A church is made a wilderness when the living waters of the Spirit are withheld. Hos 2:3, “Make her as a wilderness, and set her as a parched land.” Isa 40:3, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” The wilderness and the desert seem to be expressive of the spiritual condition of the Jewish Church.
F1 Luke viii. 29. Jamblich. de Myster. 2, c. 10.
F2 Virgil. /En. L. i. ver. 388.
F3 1Ma 2:28-31.
Fuente: A Symbolical Dictionary
Wilderness
“an uninhabited place,” is translated “wilderness” in the AV of Mat 15:33; Mar 8:4 (RV, “a desert place”); RV and AV, “wilderness” in 2Co 11:26. See DESERT, A. (In the Sept., Isa 60:20; Eze 35:4, Eze 35:9.
an adjective signifying “desolate, deserted, lonely,” is used as a noun, and rendered “wilderness” 32 times in the AV; in Mat 24:26; Joh 6:31, RV, “wilderness” (AV, “desert”). For the RV, “deserts” in Luk 5:16; Luk 8:29 see DESERT, B.
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Wilderness
Psa 102:6 (a) This type represents the lonely, desolate condition of the blessed Lord as He walked about among sinful men and wicked enemies on the earth. (See under PELICAN).
Pro 21:19 (a) It is better for one to go without many comforts, and to deny himself many pleasures if thereby he can live as he pleases. This is to be preferred to living the life with one who is constantly a source of sorrow and trouble to the heart.
Isa 32:15 (b) This is a wonderful type of the barren Christian life, which is filled with sorrow, difficulty, disappointment and grief, but which, by the ministry of the Spirit, becomes a life filled with fruitfulness, beauty and joy.
Isa 43:19 (b) This word describes the deliverance which GOD is able to bring into the tangled affairs of human life, straightens out the difficulties, delivers from perplexities, and brings His child safely through to a life of peace.
Rev 12:6 (b) Probably this refers to the condition of Israel as scattered throughout the world, where they have weary feet, longing eyes, and heavy hearts. GOD will bring them out of this condition, and out of these nations, to inhabit again their own land.
Rev 17:3 (b) This wilderness no doubt represents the various nations of the world in which the great apostate and religious system operates. This church produces nothing but tragedy and sin in the lives of the people who become members of their group. It really is a wilderness in every sense of the word.